Great Circle of St. James

Posted: August 13, 2015

Nobody is fooling themselves or anybody else about this school. The classes are chaotic and students learn nothing but complete work on a grade level that is far below what their work should be, just so that students complete something and can be passed from one grade to the next. The focus here is completely on keeping the students from hurting other people, not on education at all. But everybody understands that and is basically ok with that, because the kids here are so at-risk for violence, sex, sex, and other crimes that the priority for parents, staff, administrators, and state workers who place kids here is just to get them locked up where they can be controlled.

Posted: August 13, 2015

Again, the goal here is not to teach but to confine and control the kids.

Posted: August 13, 2015

There is no homework given here. Students do not develop any study skills at all.

Posted: August 13, 2015

Because the kids here are so troubled, the standards are set extremely low for behavior as well as academics. This is just a place to keep kids locked up and out of more significant trouble. When they are released, they are not rehabilitated or more mature, and they have not developed better character. Rather, they learn deceptive and insidious bad behaviors from other kids and even from youth workers in the residential "cottages" who are unhappy in their (unfulfilling) jobs and create a culture of subterfuge.